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How to Use PHP for WeChat Official Account Development and API Integration

M66 2025-07-11

Introduction

With the rise of smartphones and the development of the mobile internet, WeChat has become an essential social tool in daily life. More and more businesses and individuals are turning to WeChat Official Account development to interact with users and showcase their products. This article introduces how to implement WeChat Official Account development and API integration using PHP, providing code examples to help developers get started quickly.

Overview of WeChat Official Account Development

A WeChat Official Account is an account on the WeChat platform used for information dissemination, service promotion, and user interaction. There are two main types: Subscription Account and Service Account. Subscription Accounts are mainly used for content display such as news and articles, while Service Accounts are better suited for businesses and organizations, providing more advanced features like custom menus and webpage authorization.

Preparation for WeChat Official Account Development

  • Register for a WeChat Official Account and complete basic settings
  • Obtain the AppID and AppSecret of the Official Account
  • Enable development mode and configure the interface URL and Token

Implementing WeChat API Integration with PHP

Verifying the Interface URL and Token

Once the interface URL and Token are configured, WeChat's server sends a GET request to verify the validity of the interface. Here’s a PHP code example for handling this verification:

define("TOKEN", "your_token");
$signature = $_GET["signature"];
$timestamp = $_GET["timestamp"];
$nonce = $_GET["nonce"];
$echostr = $_GET["echostr"];
$tmpArr = array(TOKEN, $timestamp, $nonce);
sort($tmpArr, SORT_STRING);
$tmpStr = implode($tmpArr);
$tmpStr = sha1($tmpStr);
if($tmpStr == $signature) {
    echo $echostr;
} else {
    echo "error";
}

Handling Messages Sent by WeChat Server

When users follow, send messages, or click menus, WeChat’s server will send the relevant messages to the configured interface URL. Below is an example of PHP code to handle incoming messages and send a reply:

function responseText($toUsername, $fromUsername, $content){
    $textTpl = "<xml><ToUserName><![CDATA[%s]]></ToUserName><FromUserName><![CDATA[%s]]></FromUserName><CreateTime>%s</CreateTime><MsgType><![CDATA[text]]></MsgType><Content><![CDATA[%s]]></Content></xml>";
    $time = time();
    $result = sprintf($textTpl, $toUsername, $fromUsername, $time, $content);
    echo $result;
}
$rawXml = file_get_contents("php://input");
$xml = simplexml_load_string($rawXml);
$toUsername = $xml->ToUserName;
$fromUsername = $xml->FromUserName;
$content = $xml->Content;
responseText($fromUsername, $toUsername, "Your message is: " . $content);

Conclusion

From the above examples, it's clear that using PHP for WeChat Official Account development and API integration is not too complex. In real development, you can use other PHP libraries and frameworks to simplify the process, such as using Guzzle for handling HTTP requests or frameworks like Laravel and Symfony for building more complete applications. I hope this article helps you understand the basics of PHP integration with WeChat Official Account development.